The washing of automotive vehicles has been automated for some years with various types of apparatus. For example, there are overhead type vehicular wash systems wherein a vertical boom arm is manipulated (such as by the direction of a control unit) to travel around the perimeter of the vehicle and spray the vehicle while the vehicle remains stationary. In such systems, the vertical boom arm may be rotatably coupled to a trolley, which is in turn movably coupled to a bridge mounted to a track system above the vehicle. The bridge may be reciprocated back and forth along the length of the vehicle. The trolley may be reciprocated back and forth on a portion of the bridge along the width of the vehicle. The vertical boom arm may be circularly rotated around the trolley. Thus, via the movement of the bridge, the trolley, and the vertical boom arm, the vertical boom arm is manipulated to travel around the perimeter of the vehicle during the automatic wash process. As the vertical boom arm is manipulated around the perimeter of the vehicle, assumptions are generally made about the perimeter of the vehicle in order to prevent impact between the vertical boom arm and the vehicle during the automatic wash process. Different vehicles have different perimeters. Further, accessories such as trailer hitches, bike and ski racks, ramming plates, winches, and so on may alter the perimeter of the vehicle and may cause impact between the vertical boom arm and the vehicle, resulting in damage to the vehicular wash system and/or the vehicle.
Some gantry type car washes may utilize a series of shear pins that function to keep the vertical boom arm in the vertical position. In such washes, impact between the vertical boom arm and the vehicle fractures one or more of the shear pins and forces the vertical boom arm away from the vehicle, stopping the wash process. Service personnel may then be required to reset the vertical boom arm and install new shear pins. Other gantry type car washes may utilize a stabilizing plate held in place by bias force of an air cylinder. In such washes, impact between the vertical boom arm and the vehicle may rotate the vertical boom arm to exert force upon the stabilizing plate against the bias force of the air cylinder. In response, the wash process is typically ended so that the vertical boom arm may be reset by the bias force of the air cylinder against the stabilizing plate. However, in both of the above washes, the wash process ends upon the occurrence of an impact between the vertical boom arm and the vehicle.
The information included in this Background section of the specification, including any references cited herein and any description or discussion thereof, is included for technical reference purposes only and is not to be regarded subject matter by which the scope of the disclosure is to be bound.